The aim of This Is Your Brain on Music was to make recent findings in cognitive neuroscience of music accessible to the educated layperson.[2] Characteristics and theoretical parameters of music are explained alongside scientific findings about how the brain interprets and processes these characteristics.[3] The neuroanatomy of musical expectation, emotion, listening and performance is discussed.

This Is Your Brain on Music describes the components of music, such as timbre, rhythm, pitch, and harmony[4] and ties them to neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, cognitive psychology, and evolution,[4][5][6] while also making these topics accessible to nonexpert readers by avoiding the use of scientific jargon.[3] One particular focus of the book is on cognitive models of categorization and expectation, and how music exploits these cognitive processes.[4][5] The book challenges Steven Pinker's "auditory cheesecake" assertion that music was an incidental by-product of evolution, arguing instead that music served as an indicator of cognitive, emotional and physical health, and was evolutionarily advantageous as a force that led to social bonding and increased fitness, citing the arguments of Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Miller and others.[7]